Home
Ilia-Maria Spanou
Diploma 2
The Iceberg is an observer and flaneur of the seas, directed by external forces, and with no will of its own. Its trajectory is directed by the landscape and depth of the water, by the weather and the currents. It is only at moments when you have to make a sudden movement in order to avoid an obstacle or a person in your way that you instantly and momentarily become fully aware of your surroundings and the relation of your body to the city and its occupants. At these moments where the balance is disturbed does a moment of consciousness occur, for only an instant where you acknowledge the elements of the city surrounding you. The Peripatetic Circus is a circus of a stochastic nature, following the traditional traveling pattern of the Romani people, who ‘do not plan their moves in advance. Its trajectory is innately non-deterministic, travelling in distinct units, each accommodating a single nuclear component of the circus whole, converging later with others on a siteThe architecture needed to accommodate these acts needs to be lightweight, foldable, easily transportable and that can constantly adapt to each location and each city that the Circus is deployed in. Primary Performances immersing into the role of the Circus Performer For each category of acts, the module can be set up in different positions creating different spaces to correspond directly to the chosen site. Supporting performances and audience interactionThe Peripatetic Circus travels from city to city, always on its way, pausing for a night or two to feed its fiscal needs and cannot stay in a city longer than a few nights, for fear of becoming an ordinary stranger. It cannot last in real time without suffering the consequence of irrelevance and contradiction. The circus constitutes an experience of timelessness and onceness that attracts people, therefore, after one show the city’s grounds are exhausted for a relatively long time. It unfolds and attaches itself to the existing urban fabric of each city, just like a parasite, manipulating its apartness and dramatizing the boundaries of everyday reality. It chooses its site according to the economic growth of each location, taking advantage of its resources for its own financial needs, but at the same time exposing the routine of the superficial and irrational contemporary city life.The timelessness of the circus drama is used as a tool through which the encounter between performers and audience are redefined and turned into a tool of reflection for the public. It is not the acts themselves that are the key to the performance, but the staging of them, that transform them into a dialogical cultural process. The show becomes a spectacular conversation between the audience, the performers and the structure, and the city. The performers act as mediators, framing the city and its rejected or ignored constituents.Every 20 min, 2 members of the drifting audience are given the opportunity to virtually transform into circus performers. They are invited backstage to live through the most personal experiences of a circus performer, from preparing for the big act, to performing in front of a live audience and being applauded by thousands of spectators.The acts in the circus do not take place one after the other, but rather their timing appears random. Acts begin and end at different times, each running their own schedule and it is up to each spectator to experience and discover the circus as he pleases, letting the different stimuli steer him through the performances.